Catching up on school work or catching up on sleep?

Poor+sleep+habits+contribute+to+poor+performance+in+the+classroom.+

Layla Vega

Poor sleep habits contribute to poor performance in the classroom.

Students, especially as they increase in grade level, tend to have busier and busier schedules.  Such schedules do not leave a lot of time in the day to have a good night’s rest. 

While a majority of students may not get a good night’s sleep each night, there are still some students who are able to balance school and sleep. Eleventh grader Abby Wambach tries her hardest to do a lot of time management, as she sees time management as one of the tools that could best help balance school with sleep. 

“I try to do good time management and try to work ahead if I can get what I can get done,” Wambach said. 

Time management is not an easy task but it is proven that with the right mindset and determination it can be done properly. 

“It’s hard when I have no time with sports and since I don’t get home until really late, I end up not having enough time to do homework. Having the weekends is a help because that is when I get most of the work done, so I don’t have to do as much during the week,” Wambach said.

In French teacher Maddy Lewis’s perspective, students not only have trouble balancing school and sleep, but the teachers at Clover Hill also have to deal with the students who fall asleep in their classes due to lack thereof at home. Lewis has noticed that there are more students now than usual that have been continuously falling asleep in class and identified a possible reason behind this problem.

“I think it’s a technology issue, if I had a million different things I could stream and play on my phone every night, it would be really easy for me to stay up until 4 o’clock in the morning without even realizing it,” Lewis said. 

When sleeping in class becomes continuous, Lewis tries to talk to those students privately to see what she can do to help, as do other teachers. However, Lewis feels that as high school students, there is a time when these things start to fall on the students and excuses are not a possibility anymore.

“I really like to acknowledge the behavior in class when I can, but at the end of the day it’s a skill I like to leave in [the students’] hands,” Mrs. Lewis said. 

According to an anonymous student in twelfth grade, the student gets an average of five to six hours of sleep each night. With finishing homework, having a job and doing extracurriculars for college, the student does not have much time to sleep.

“I do a lot of homework at home, work a job and [do] extracurriculars for colleges so it adds up,” the senior said. 

The anonymous student in twelfth grade believes that teachers should try to be more open minded and remember that most students have other things going on outside of school too; they should put that into consideration when considering the amount of work they give students. 

However, while teachers can help lessen the burden on students, according to the twelfth grade student, students should also consider the classes they take to make sure they pick what is best for them to handle school with their outside life.

“I think it’s a good balance of students knowing what they’re taking on and teachers being aware of how much they’re giving out,” the senior said. 

As students grow through their high school years, time management plays a huge part. It can be challenging but it’s something that can make sure everything gets done on time and always leave yourself room to breathe.